Emmerdale, formerly known as Emmerdale Farm until 1989, is a popular British soap opera that has aired on ITV since 1972. It is set in the fictional village of Emmerdale in West Yorkshire, England, and was created by Kevin Laffan.
Emmerdale is commonly seen as the third most popular soap opera on British television, behind Coronation Street and Eastenders.
The series was first aired on 16 October 1972. It was originally broadcast as a daytime programme in an afternoon slot, before earning a prime time slot in 1978. Until the mid-1980s, Emmerdale took seasonal breaks and was not an all year round soap. Over 5,000 episodes of Emmerdale have now been made.
Emmerdale is shown on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:00 and on a Thursday at 19:00 and 20:00. Episodes are first broadcast on ITV1.
Emmerdale predominantly draw in an older audience than grittier city soaps like Eastenders. Set in a farm village, the younger generations have often described it as boring and dreary, but an influx of younger characters in recent times has helped to dispel that belief slightly.
Until 1993, Emmerdale was largely ignored by the media who were more interested in grittier, hard hitting soaps like Coronation Street, Eastenders and Brookside. However, the plane crash storyline brought it into the public eye, giving the show its highest-ever viewing figures of 18 million. Other major storylines included the Home Farm siege in 1994, the storm of 2003, the Kings River explosion of 2006, the Tom King kidnapping of 2006, and the murder of Tom King on Christmas Day 2006.
Emmerdale has become acclaimed for its disaster storylines, with car related incidents (car crashes and hit and runs) being prevalent. Emmerdale is also well known for its memorable exits, most notably Tricia Dingle in 2003 when the villages pub the Woolpack’ roof collapsed on her.
An average Emmerdale episode generally attracts 5–7 million viewers, although it has frequently attracted more than 9 millions viewers.
